In place of science, the Eskimo has only magic to bridge the gap between what he can understand and what is not known. Without magic, his life would …

- Peter Farb

The dictionary is a closed system in which someone interested in the meaning of a word can go around and around and end up exactly where he started, …

- Peter Farb

An invention or new combination can be successful only if all if the elements necessary for the recombination are present in the culture.

- Peter Farb

No child is capable of speech until he has heard other human beings speak, and even two infants reared together cannot develop a language from scratc…

- Peter Farb

Native speakers of a language know intuitively whether a sentence is grammatical or not. They usually cannot specify exactly what is wrong, and very …

- Peter Farb

The environment does not determine man's culture; it merely sets the outer limits and at the same time offers opportunities.

- Peter Farb

People who speak the same language can hate one another as easily as can people who speak unrelated languages.

- Peter Farb

Despite the theories traditionally taught in high-school social studies, the truth is: the more primitive the society, the more leisured its way of l…

- Peter Farb

Speakers who have grown up in the American community unconsciously know its rules about taking turns in conversations-in the same way that they know …

- Peter Farb